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Agriculture is vital to India. Green revolution has increased India's agricultural productivity. ITC is one of India's leading private companies. The company initiated an e-Choupal places computers with internet access. effort that

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E-Choupal serves as both a social gathering place and an e-commerce hub. This case shows the key role of IT provided by a corporation but used by local farmers.

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Lack of access to modern resources led to under-trained workplace.
Rural India is a difficult business location. Serves a dual agenda
¾ Bridging rural isolation ¾ Creating large profit opportunity for the
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organisation
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sends to processing center weighs electronically .
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. At harvest time. The farmers can use the computers to access daily closing prices on local mandis. fertilizers and other products.assesses quality . ITC buys the crop .pays the farmers. They use e-Choupal to order seed.
ITC made significant investments to create and maintain its own IT network in rural India.

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More control over farmers choices Higher profit margin on their crops Access to information that improves their productivity Increases trust and fairness
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Refers to the class of crops from which edible oils are extracted Classified into:
¾ Traditional oils ¾ Non-traditional oils
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 Soy represented an important innovation in
Indian oilseed complex
 Dominated by small farmers
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No incentive to farmers to invest in better seed Cost of bagging and weighing. Loss of spilled produce Lack of information regarding price and right time.       
Cost of overnight stay Crops being negatively affected by the weather. Inspection process is unscientific. Trading companies like ITC had no direct contact with farmers.
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Avoids ´re-inventing the wheelµ.and also marketing channel.Intimate knowledge of the farmer and village dynamics allow him to accurately access and manage risk 2.seed. 2.engineer.pesticides.fertilizer. Not just one part: The village traders services the spectrum needs of the farmers from a centralized cash provider.
Re. Not reconstruct: 1.
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.Reduces the transaction costs. Benefits: 1.Recriuts and engages members of the rural landscape Address the whole part.

Commitment to address the whole system. misappropriation. or misuse has been reported in any of the 2000 e ²choupals.
.thus allowing the farmer an empowered choice of where and when to sell his crop. not just a part of the system.Previously the farmers were binded to an agent but echoupal was seen as the medium of delivering critical information . 2.
An IT-Driven Solution:
IT is 20% of all the effort of ITC·s E-choupal business model and also are equally crucial. The manifestation of the integrity of the expensive IT infrastructure did not report a single case of theft. The two goals envisioned are:
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Trust 2.   
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Serve as both social gathering and place of exchange of information and an e-commerce hub Sanchalaks(co coordinator) and Samyogak(collaborator) By passes the agent controlled mandis Today the network reaches more than farmers in nearly 11000 villages through 2000 e-choupals and the network is expanding rapidly The critical element of the e-choupal system: 1.Sanchalak a trained approachable interface between the illiterate farmers and other villagers 4.ITC need not invest in building and securing the physical infrastructure 3.Leverage as a profit making power for small entepreneurs
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Reduced transportation cost almost half of what ITC used to pay to the agents.5 to 3 % . ( Agents ± 2. Managed risk through stronger information system.5% ). product quality. Bottom up information on pricing.
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Less commission paid to the sanchalaks as compare to the agents at the mandis. Sanchalaks ± 0. Help attain long term supplier relationship with farmers. Improved quality through reward system. soil condition and expected yield.

2.ITC¶s E-Choupal model identifies three sources of value for the Company that can help to scale the model
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Crop Specific Intervention Low-Cost Last Mile Intelligent First Mile
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Youngsters use to research latest movies. For other activities like: Children use computers for schoolwork and games.Location/Buyer wise prices offered. fertilizers. Best practices in farming( generic as well as specific). cell phone models and cricket news.
Helps enhance farm productivity by: Disseminating latest information on district level weather forecasts in short & medium terms. International market prices . Helps improve price realization by: Making available data on markets viz. Supply of quality inputs(seed.
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. pesticides) in village itself.

They include:  Commission Agents  Mandi laborers  Bazaars near the mandi  Some mandi operations  Competing processors
.Some of the people have suffered loss of revenue.

 The fairness with which both farmers and local partners are treated.  Company·s commitment to transparency.
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.  ITC·s efforts to retain many aspects of existing production system including the local partners.ITC·s extensive knowledge of agriculture.